Many existing systems of transferring money over electronic money transfer networks, such as Automatic Clearing House (ACH) networks, have limitations. Traditional wire transfers, for instance, typically require both a sender of money and recipient of money to be physically present at a financial institution or have direct access (e.g., online access) to an account at a financial institution. Requiring a sender and a recipient to have accounts at financial institution(s) may make it difficult to transfer money from/to some people, such as underbanked segments of the population and/or people who lack ready access to financial institutions. Moreover, traditional wire transfers that involve transferring money between financial institutions or exchange of currency is heavily regulated and generally requires additional fees. These fees may form the basis of transaction costs that make transfer of money between individuals inefficient, impractical or otherwise difficult.
Many existing systems of transferring money to individuals do not accommodate otherwise possible money transfer scenarios. As an example, existing systems of transferring money may not make funds available to people who want to send or receive money at a physical payment terminal of a retail store or other non-financial institution that is not a financial institution. Existing systems of transferring money may not make funds available to people who want to send or receive money using online payment processes of non-financial institutions. Debit transfer systems and other systems of transferring money to people at retail establishments and/or retail websites may be cost-prohibitive and/or may not facilitate transfers of money between people. Many existing systems of transferring money to individuals may not make fund available soon after a request to transfer funds has been made (e.g., substantially in “real-time”). As a result, it has often proven difficult to cost-effectively transfer money over electronic money transfer networks to individuals, particularly those individuals who lack access to the payment systems of financial institutions.